Your Cellphone Might Be Spying on You

Cell phones have become such an integral part of our lives that many people would actually feel be wrought with anxiety if they left their cell phone at home, even for a short run to the store. However what many do not know is that the unobtrusive ever present convenience that you just can't live without may just be spying on you. Far from a conspiracy theory about some overbearing nanny state trying to keep tabs on its citizens, this is a reality. Instead of the government you your phone could be sending your every move to your jealous spouse, your parents, your boss, or even worse, someone who could mean you harm. Please watch the video below. This is real. Not just fear-mongering. Some useful tips below the video.


To help avoid this situation to begin with:

1. You should never leave your phone unattended. It only takes a short time to install software, or your phone could be swapped for a clone.
2. Password protect your phone. The default passwords for most phones are easily available on the Internet. More often than not it's the last four digits of your phone number.
   
3. Use the same policies for email and web surfing on your phone that you use on your computer. DO NOT open suspicious emails or visit untrusted sites. The smarter phones get the more susceptible they are to the same types of attacks as your computer and until they start shipping cell phones with anti-virus software you're naked.
   

If you think someone may be spying on you here are a few things you can do.

1. Contact the police if you are being harassed or feel like you might be in danger.
   
2. Turn off your phone when not in use and remove the battery.
   
3. While your phone may be compromised do not use it for anything that may come back to bite you like mobile banking or contacting any of your creditors or utility companies.
   
4. Don't provide your personal information over your cellphone. Like your Social Security number, address, or even your birth date.
5. Don't divulge your location or travel plans, even a trip to the store. If someone is listening they may be waiting for you let slip that you will be away from home so they can break in.
6. Consider resetting your phone to factory specs. You can take it in to the store where you bought it (usually) or find out how to do it yourself online. Just make sure that you wait until the police are done with it. They can't catch your bad guy if you erase the evidence.
   
7. Do not try to "set up" the bad guy! No matter how tempting it would be to try and lure your stalker into the open, some things are better left to professionals, and this is one of them.
   

Military Recruiters Sharing Information About Your Kids Without Permission

The Department of Defense is maintaining a "Joint Advertising and Market Research Studies" Recruiting Database of over 30 million Americans between 16 and 25 years old. Huge exemptions to federal privacy laws leave it wide open for the DOD to disclose your kid's personal information without your permission! Go to the EPIC website for more information on the DOD Recruiting Database. If that's not enough, recruiters are at your child's school and recruiting your children without your permission. You have to opt out to keep them from actively recruiting your child. At my high school we had a recruiting station in one corner of the library with lots of pamphlets and brochures and once in a while a member of one of distinguished members of our Armed Services would be available to talk to any kid who was interested. I have absolutely no problem with that, What I do have a problem with is situations like the one described on MotherJones.Com. Where a young man was aggressively targeted by recruiters possessing information that he did not give them. I support all of our men and women in our Armed Forces and believe that military experience can be invaluable to many young people, but whatever happened to the old fashioned way of recruiting where interested kids sought out the recruiter? 2 of my own children have or are considering military service but I will be damned if I want some specially trained headhunter armed with insider information strong arming any of my kids into service. Remember, ours is a volunteer military.

Links
http://privacy.org/archives/003140.html
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/few-good-kids
http://epic.org/privacy/student/doddatabase.html

Use Cash for Clunkers Website and Your Computer Belongs to the Government

The Cash for Clunkers program may seem enticing but as the old saying goes, "here is no free lunch". If you try to log in to the Cash for Clunkers website you have to agree to the privacy policy, which of course no-one ever reads... After agreeing to the privacy policy a warning box pops up telling you that your computer will become property of the government and anything stored on your computer can be retrieved and shared, even with foreign entities.

Check out the video below to see how the government is tricking people into letting them irrevocable access EVERYTHING on their personal computers.

Fake Spyware Detectors and Government Traps

Who do you trust?

According to some people, everyone is in on "it". Is that software really deleting that file? Are proxy servers really anonymous or did the government publish that website?

Good question and I wish I had a convincingly definitive answer. Many businesses and law enforcement agencies employ what are known as "honey pots" - websites, servers or other computers intentionally left with weaknesses in their security in the hope of luring hackers and others of nefarious intent into trying to break in and then the website can glean intelligence on who's been trying to sneak in. This practice is legal and probably necessary in the fight against the criminal element. However, sometimes a hiker might step in the bear trap, so to speak. If you find yourself in a situation where you think you might run afoul of "The Man", get the hell outa there QUICK! Follow the tips elsewhere in this blog to clear your cache and wipe your file slack and swap/page file.

It is relatively well known that there is now spyware out there disguised as privacyware, so it's not too big of a stretch to think that, just maybe, that the proxy server you are using is actually some government shadow operation tricking people into giving them easy access to their comings and goings on the net. What better way to catch people trying to hide something than to offer them a free or easy way to hide it?

I don't necessarily subscribe to this theory but it is reason for pause. So you ask...

Who can you trust?

Since there are so many people out there concerned with their privacy these days it's hard to believe that any "spy" sites could last for very long on the net before somebody "outs" it, and spyware programs disguised as anti-spyware are exposed pretty quickly. Try to keep up to date on Usenet postings, bulletin boards, and blogs. Don't take any ONE persons word for something. If you want to surf anonymously use a proxy server such as Anonymizer, AND a free or pre-paid ISP.

I would be very suspicious of any website that sells privacyware and spyware at the same time. Look for companies that have been around for awhile. If you suddenly see a popup window screaming that you have spyware and it's not from a program that you installed yourself, DO NOT click any of the buttons on the popup. Use Windows Task Manager to close your browser. To do this in Windows 9X and XP, simultaneously hold and release the "Ctrl" "Alt' and "Delete" keys. Select the "Applications" tab, select the program to close and click the "End Task" button. Next scan your computer with a spyware detector that you do trust, you do have one installed already, don't you? My favorites are always the free versions, I like Spybot Search and Destroy and Adaware Personal. Sometimes it's too late for a spyware detector, or worse, you didn't install one until it's too late... ouch!

Unfortunately if that's the case it's beyond the scope of this article but there are a LOT of people that post instructions for getting rid of these atrocities. Just Google the name of the offending program or call a tech.

There are many blogs and forums dedicated to these topics and the privacy community is a generous bunch. The real die-hards still frequent privacy newsgroups and bulletin boards, and you can ask the folks there what they think of a particular solution. There's always someone out there willing to help, just to further the cause of our privacy. But remember not to take any ONE
person's word on a subject, even mine. After someone posts a reply to your query check back again in a day or so to see if anyone else has something to say. And if it sounds too go to be true........

G8 Threatens Privacy!

Here are a couple of important (read: terrifying) tidbits that came out of the G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting held June 11-13, 2008.
The G8 is pushing for its member states to monitor Mobile and ISP traffic for copyrighted material to further a high level treaty called the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) that they are working on. So not only will your ISP be spying on you (in the interest of fighting piracy of course) but so will your cell phone company!
I do not condone piracy, but this seems a little too Orwellian to me. Next thing you know the governments could be strong arming service providers of all types to listen for “potential terrorists” engaging in suspicious or anti government talk. Hello!?!? You may as well use the Constitution for toilet paper!

Additionally the G8 wants to give airport customs officials the right to scan portable media players for copyrighted material. Giving customs officials the power to scan MP3 players, laptops and even mobile phones for illegally-obtained copyrighted material when passengers pass through borders seems ridiculous to me. Most likely these pirated items would have come from the internet and have absolutely NOTHING to do with a person physically flying to another country. Ok, you want to look in my luggage to find the 30 Madonna CDs I burned at home and I plan to sell in Bangkok, fine, but what the hell am I going to have on my laptop that I couldn’t download sitting in a Starbucks anywhere In the world.
Of course the owners of a copyright need protection but not at the expense of personal freedom. There HAS to be a better way than having some jackbooted thug digitally violate you in the interest of protecting some rich bastard’s profit margin!


Note: The G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting is a forum allowing the G8 (Japan, Italy, Canada, France, USA, UK, Russia, Germany) Ministers responsible for justice and home affairs, the EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, and the Secretary-General of the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO) to meet and discuss matters of common interest. From: http://www.g8jha2008.jp/eng/what.html

Sources
http://www.g8jha2008.jp/eng/what.html
http://www.switched.com/2008/07/20/airports-may-scan-for-illegal-downloads-on-mobile-devices/
http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/g8_acta_think_twice_before_you_share_protected_content.php